Action Oriented Monsters | Running the Game
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- Episode 84.
Here's the scratch pad I used to make these. My next step would be plugging in attack and damage numbers, and cleaning it up to be usable on the night.
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Goblins Per Round, or GPR, is how I do all of my encounter building math
geoxstellar I don’t know why but for some reason now I’m imagining a bunch of goblins being launched out of a t shirt cannon.
@@thelittleredhairedgirlfrom6527 semi automatic goblins.
"Goblins per round" is obviously so much better that "damage per round" for the sheer realism of it. "Damage = 1d6, 2d6, or 3d6, then the other guy goes, and does 1d6, 2d6 or 3d6, depending on factors I haven't figured out yet" is not really all that realistic, for obvious reason.
"Goblins per round" is badass as fuck, for obvious reasons, and also calcus reasons.
This is definitely going into my monster creation 'go-to' BA from now on. I love this creative method.
I make my goblins all goblin minions and then throw as many of them as possible at the players. So now its mgpr or minion goblins per round
"Y'all got anymore of them Action Oriented Monster videos?" **scratch,scratch**
Dael kingsmil
Guess this comment is the genesis moment for Flee Mortals!! :D :D
@@Castheknotted fact
MonarchsFactory is legit
As of now, all the standard Ankhegs are juveniles and this is the true ankheg
You can even have ancient ankheg the size of a terasque for a high level party. Who spawns loads of juveniles on the BG.
@@kamnis33 The point is that monsters dont need to be high level to be interesting, though.
@@magnusanderson6681 not to rain any negativity but creating an idea for your later leveled characters isnt about making a high leveled monster but about an engaging creature that suprises and excites your players. A ankheg boss for high levels who spawns smaller ankheg when damaged makes your playera have to think. Maybe make cold attacks neutralize the acid spawns so if they figure it put they will feel accomplishment in the middle of a fight. Just My long two cents.
Ankheg Soldier
@@malcolmhensley2605 this sounds really cool
I tried this out. My party of 5 had to go and fight a bandit camp. My party is very smart and know their way to effectively get items and gear. They bought potions, rope, traps, make shift bombs, molotov, gas bombs, poison weapons. They did everything the could to shut this bandit camp down in one encounter.
The bandit captain who had 50 hp.. sounded like chump changes to the two clerics, gunslinger/rogue, bear barbariant, and a fighter/barbarian.
However I gave that captain 3 villain actions.
"CALL FOR HELP!" two bandits come out of any of the 4 tents in the camp as they woke up late or were getting ready.
"RAIN HELL!" the captains ordered all bandits to fire a ranged weapon a second time!
"TOUGH AS NAILS" bandits be angry. The captain yells at 2 bandits of his choice and they are immediately brought to 1 hp.
Each villain action would fire differently. Call for help only fired if the barbarians advanced, rain hell only fired if the cleric used a big spell, tough as nails only fired to keep the fight going a little longer and was my dm way of putting a little surprise of a guy getting back up to be an annoyance.
My party all got hit hard, but they went full Jason Voorhees, Friday the 13th on those bandits. It was super cool and super fun. There were moments were they had to use bought items to help them out.
My thought was this. Have an action to deal damage but never guarantee it like "rain hell"
Have something to keep the players on edge, be more strategic and use resources and abilities. "Call for help"
Something to make the fight annoying.. make the players REALLY want to beat the captain. "Tough as nails" followed by the captain laughing at the players failure. Really pissed them off and when they took down the bandit captain, they cheered.
I think my Goblin Boss voice is basically my Orc voice, but I think I could have done a good, angry, squeaky goblin headman if I did it again.
Matthew Colville if your Duergar voice is any portent, it will be terrific
The first time I ran a Goblin encounter, I hadn't planned for a voice and accent for them. I instinctively gave them a raspy voice and Italian Brooklyn accent. My players were very entertained, so I stuck with it.
@@chrissnyder8415 you think this isn't edited?
The 4th is strong with this one...
Love it.
Chris Snyder is this fun banter with a hint of truth or bluntly your opinion attempting to actually come across as a wangrod?
Not that I don’t agree I’m just trying to figure out.
"You die when I say you die!" Was a hit at my game last night. 3 "Dead" Goblins got up with 1 HP each, and took an extra attack at my players. 5th Session ever as DM (Thanks Matt!), running Yawning Portal, Sunless Citadel.
I slapped it on a Necromancer I made, when his minions went down while he was still alive, he just made them get back up with 1HP. My players reaction when he first did it was "Oh he's annoying". My player's reaction when he did it AGAIN was "Oh he's gotta go". They threw him off a walkway forty feet in the air.
@@ConnorGrummer "They threw him off a walkway forty feet in the air." Sounds like a reasonable resolution.
9:12 - "I'm not here to make more work for my self" - Matt, and I intend this in the most sincere way I can delivery this - this is some of the best advice you've given. Keep it up.
and of course.... 25:50 is another gem.
“This is my own homebrew nonsense.” Which is why it’s so much fun!!
I’ve got 1 player who used to say, “That’s not what that creature can do!”. And I would respond in a 4th-wall-breaking narrator’s voice, “Clearly, this PC does not know what he/she thinks they know. This should be entertaining.”
Eventually one of the other players said, “Dude, this is Mark’s World… roll with it.” So it became an inside joke, a verb - my homebrew monsters were “Mark’d”.
I never enter a Starfinder campaign without doubling my monsters hp's.
People think DnD is videogames and just go in with that mentality and it really shows, sadly. Glad someone gave your guy a hint.
@@sladewilson9741 I am new to GMing in Starfinder, are the Alien archives stats not a good starting point for enemies?
@@Ninja-gs7ck Not in my experience. Plus I usually have 6 pcs instead of 4
@@sladewilson9741 thanks for the feedback, i guess i have to try it a few times and see how it works for me
-"I cast Silence on the Gobo Boss, gg DM"
-"You start feeling tremors under your feet"
Hm. Silence would break the goblin encounter. I wonder if ways to get around it.
I was thinking the same thing, but if players solve the encounter that way I think you should just reward them for being smart and not try to work around it per se. At least not mechanically. But breaking concentration is always an option if the goblins know who casted it. Also the players probably wouldn't immediately know that casting silence is the solution because the abilities only go once per round.
@@p00tis Silence can only be cast on a point not an object or person, it would buy them an Action while the creature disengage moves out of the 20ft sphere but outside of them it wouldn't break it entirely.
If they managed to get someone next to it with Sentinel as well or some other movement restriction in place on the boss then they just deserve the win really.
@@p00tis They'd just run away to get reinforcements.
Enemies abound on the goblin boss.
Now he only sees enemies. Chances are he'll run.
I ran the improved ankheg against the five 10 year olds in the dnd after school club I run today. They were all level 5. I think it was the most memorable battle they've had. It was intense and almost 3 of them went down. Especially when it exploded at the end. So thank you very much for making our club even better.
Gonna have 2 of them ambush the adult group I run for at the weekend. All level 9. Very excited!
Cannot wait for the MCDM Villains and Monsters book to come out :)
I was thinking the exact same thing. Don’t get me wrong I’m ready for kingdoms and warfare. However, I always have room for another Villains and Monster Manual. I especially love the out of the box ideas Matt comes up with. I’ve been playing and DMing for many many years now and he always comes up with a new and most importantly fun way of designing encounters and monsters. Made me go back and buy the 4th edition core set just to mine for power and abilities for my bad guys. So I would love to see a Covillian Monster & Villain Tome.
What should they call it? I have a few thoughts:
MCDM Monster Manual
Bosses & Bad Guys
Matt's Monster Maker
I would 100% purchase that book.
MetalGlitch great title! Perfect for MCDM. Here’s to a future Bosses & Bad Guys Book or Tome or Manual lol.
BroKenny16 absolutely! Take my money too MCDM!
"a goblin's weapon of choice... is more goblins"
Hah! Of course! Classic goblin shenanigans!
Another way of looking at it: The first time you use this design, it will also be the best monster you ever designed ;)
Because it will be the precursor of a world full of nightmare fuel monsters for your players to face.
Good stiuff. Honest, Matt, at some point you're either going to have to create an original system or have a collection of supplements that so meaningfully change 5e as to be indistinguishable from one. You're always quick to identify the weaknesses and sacred cows of D&D & suggest homebrew in a way that Wizards never will for fear of weakening the profitability of their license.
Idk, everyone likes legendary actions. I think its more an issue that they dont make tools for gms to make their own content. 5e monster creation rules are so bad and such a step back from 4e I cant help but suspect malice.
@@magnusanderson6681 This is where something like DnDBeyonds upcoming monster creator could be a massive boon to the homebrew world as it will use the backend Wizards math to do all the calculations and allow for much easier customization of new or existing monsters. They've even talked about a CR slider that will essentially up/down level an existing monster, really cool stuff.
@@TBKzord I hope this doesn't only change stats in numbers
I gave a larger than normal Ankheg the effects of the Earth Tremor spell when it burrowed.
That's super cool! I love it!
Matthew Colville Your channel gave me the confidence to GM. Now, D&D is part of our homeschool curriculum and my wife and sons have all tried GMing. Thanks.
Been doing something like this for years. In essence: play the monsters to their ability, not their stat block. I had a Chimera with a Intelligence boosting magic item drop rocks, use weather cover, etc. Tension was high.
It got away. They HATE that Chimera. Now they’re invested.
This reminds me of something I did with my Chimera. The while 8 session campaign was leading to this big dungeon and the treasury of the villain was guarding by a Chimera. The players spent their 7 sessions building a crew to go to the dungeon. They were 5th level 3 players and 4 npcs ranging from cr 1/4 to cr 2.
What I ended up doing is bumping it's hp, and giving the goat head spells (idea came from dragon's dogma). I also had it always flying as long as it had a breath attack to use so half the party couldn't reach for an attack unless they did something creative. And creative they were.
Mike Gould Mike Gould thank you. Play to your audience not to your reference books
Seeing Matt smirk after he says "You die when I say so!" reminded me why I love this channel.
If there's ever a 6E, they absolutely need to get Matt Colville on it!
there will be
@@chaotic28 I think they have designed 5e in a way that a 6e could never happen. The rules are soooo open that you can just change the rules to fix any problems that exist.
@@brettpage Do you mean the fact that the other two of the three core D&D pillars, exploration and social, are so underutilized and underdeveloped by the mechanics that we DMs have to figure on our own out how to actually make they work? Yeah, really open.
@@framerate269 "Do you mean the fact that the other two of the three core D&D pillars, exploration and social, are so underutilized and underdeveloped by the mechanics that we DMs have to figure on our own out how to actually make they work? Yeah, really open."
Agreed!
Welcome to OneD&D.
This is the single greatest encounter balancing advice ever presented for 5th edition. I use this technique all the time now and constantly refer new DMs to this video. Thank you Matt, for being such an amazing treasure and resource!
For a long time, I've believed that encounters need to "change" after two rounds, otherwise they may become boring. This genius idea of adding custom actions to add combat variation and NPC personality is freakin' GOLDEN! Thanks, Matt, you always inspire!
I love that the goblin boss has gone under minimal design changes from here to "Flee Mortals!" That is because he is without flaw.
I just took a look at the final packet for "Flee, Mortals!" It's very cool to have been here for the beginning of the whole thing.
I' ll definately use this, I get so bored with players destroying my beasties before they can do anything cool ..thank you very much! Its great inspiration
Back again. Almost ritualistic for me to come back to this video before important fights. This really is some of the finest content you’ve ever made, matt.
You too huh. Haha
was LITERALLY just thinking "I could really go for another Running the Game right about now" about ten minutes ago. thanks for the vids, Matt
Exact same thing. I came to the channel just to see if I had missed something.
Me too, although I think that about once every ten minutes.
Same
"Acid for Blood" hmm... maybe it's an automatic reaction for when the monster drops below half hit points, or "bloodied".
You forgot one obvious villain action for the goblins: "Delay them", "Slow them down", "Keep them busy" or something similar. Him shouting this means that he is about to retreat, leaving the goblins to their fate and maybe forcing the players hands. Can they afford to let him escape? They might get to see him again later if they no not stop him
It might be used after the "Kill" command round. If the gob boss sees that after every murdering effort his force cant beat the pcs, he just uses hes lackeys as meatshield to escape. Cool idea.
It might also be used as a DM screwup protection, if you accidentally used to many goblins or if the dice are not cooperating, by removing the boss from this encounter.
@@fofolacosa123 or just have "Kill" have an alternate "Do Something!" if the Goblin Boss is losing (Kill if he is winning)
Dude!... you’re awesome. Your energy is infectious and you easily hold my attention for 30+ minutes. Keep on with the great ideas!
Villain Actions and Reactions remind me of Magic: the Gathering.
Reactons: Waitwaitwait---before you go to combat.. In response!
Villain Action: Oh, on your end step...
It's like playing against Esper Control.
YES! This is that exactly! That must be why I appreciate it so much.
You just activated my Trap card! (after seeing this comment, my first thought was this)
Isn't that the same as Legendary Actions? I don't get the difference between that and Villain Action.
mAc Chaos Pretty sure it’s the same thing. Remember Matt’s played a bunch of editions, so he has to wrap all those terms around his head!
@@rconnor2006 That's true. Do you think he meant for a Villain Action to be used at the end of the monster's turn, or at some other point? And I assume, once per round, not more than once.
As a DM who has struggled with Monsters (especially single monsters) being too easy without being overtly Tanky/Powerful, this video is a lifesaver! I just went back to comb through all the Running the Game videos. DMing this week and I'll definitely be trying out AOMs
The Running the Game series got me into, well, running the game. Each video makes me more excited to run, and more skilled at doing so.
Thanks, Matt. Thanks, MCDM.
Some thoughts:
I think that for boss monsters it's also important to be in the heads of the players. In the case PCs encounter a goblin boss that convokes goblins and rise them from the dead, they will probably just focus the boss. It can be a problem because they might just kill it in one or two rounds. Hence a reaction or action like "protect me with your lives!" where the selfish boss will use other goblins as shields against heroes weapons and spells, as long as there are other goblins near him. It's also a more intelligent and dynamic way to give the boss more HP. And I can imagine the massive (for a goblin) goblin boss grabbing a tiny goblin minion just to ensure not getting hurt.
For the solo monster: PCs will want to argue that they can get opportunity attacks while the beast is burrowing his way. And I'm not sure what to tell them, because it would make sense. I would probably add a screeching bonus action or something when the beast decides to burrow, forcing PCs to make a save to be able to take an opportunity attack.
I’m pretty sure that’s actually an ability that goblin bosses have, where if another goblin is standing next to them and they get hit, they can make their ally take the hit instead of them.
> PCs will want to argue that they can get opportunity attacks while the beast is burrowing his way.
Uh, not if it has a BA disengage.
Sorry that this is two years late, but:
1) Give the monster the mobile feat.
2) Let it take disengage as a bonus action
3) Unless they have sentinile, let them take the AOO and just don't subtract that damage done from the monster. They will literally have no way of knowing.
It was both amazing to see my group's faces when my Bugbear boss acted on their turns and for once caused them to take a look at the boss as a real threat. They usually avoid planning much but seeing them react to a goblin running to give him a healing potion and them trying to intercept him was great. Using this for all my boss monsters, convinced me to get the stronghold and followers that I was going back and forth with.
This should literally be a book. Like just start taking the monster manual and entry by entry, make a villain or solo monster out of i
I'd pay for that!
You gonna buy the book now
@@robertcox9871 already did
the first campaign I ever ran was lost mines of phandelver. It was for friends who had never played D&D before. I rebuilt the last boss fight with the Drow in wave echo cave, and this video was really really helpful. they were blown away, not by the amount of HP the drow mage had, but what he did and all the tricks he pulled, like using the corpses of his dead giant spider minions to create an undead abomination spider, and the players were absolutely thrilled afterward, all the while the drow sat on his throne and barely moved himself, until his hubris's got him killed by the PC barbarian. Thank you Matt, it was alot of fun.
I love how gleefully Matt talks about all the cool and exciting things he's giving to his bug monster.
5e really needs some interesting solo monsters.
Action economy really matters in 5e.
Yeah solos in general are kind of tough to write in any turn based game, since it amounts to a bunch of PCs focus firing on one foe. Even legendary actions don't seem to do a hell of a lot since they're often not all that powerful to really be game changers.
It's much more dynamic in a game like Dungeon World where failing at attacking means the enemy hits you. That gets more of an interesting set up where the boss monster gets more actions the more PCs there are, and has that ability to take on the whole group at once.
Late, but Pathfinder 2e does some awesome stuff with solo monsters, especially with its action economy. A single tough enough enemy can singlehandedly take on a huge party, and the best part is that the math actually backs it up, rather than being as arbitrary as 5e's challenge rating system works
I like the idea of the acid for blood activating each time it's attacked, but with a dex save. First time it's quite hard as it's not expected, but from then on it's much easier to make as everyone knows to avoid it. This done with the number to beat changing, or with advantage after knowing about it and/or disadvantage before. The idea is it's unlikely to hit at all often after the first time, but there's a chance. Also only 1D4 damage with no bonuses.
Back when I was running homebrews, this is essentially the process I went through to streamline my side of encounters. When I recently started running D&D, I somehow managed to forget this. Thank you for the reminder.
Just DM'd my first game and it went over extremely well! All the players said they had an amazing time and said I did a great job as the DM. Thanks for all your awesome videos Matt!
By Riker's beard! This blew my mind. Breaking a boss encounter down into just the key stats and abilities is genius. The villain actions as a semi-scripted set of legendary actions is such a cool concept. My brain is on fire! Thank you for posting this.
Matthew Colville looks like how I imagine Richard the Lionheart.
The ankheg claws you while you've prone to make sure you have been clawed. Man, I've missed your videos Matt
"Every round, a fresh goblin arrives." So... Krenko Mob Boss.
Yess!!! I hate krenko!
I've been trying to figure out how to do things like this for my games...and Matt Colville provides.
The way I handle this is by giving “boss fight” enemies multiple combat turns to even out the action economy. It makes it clear how different this enemy encounter is from other ones.
Hey Matt, I just wanted to say thanks for this series. I discovered it a year ago on accident with zero knowledge of D&D. After binging a few episodes I taught myself and 5 of my friends the rules. And we play every week! Now my friends are also running / playing with new people. So your videos have sparked about 15 new people into discovering D&D
One thing I loved in old Magic: the Gathering sets were Goblins that did things when you sacrificed them. Cards like Goblin Grenade and Mogg Fanatic.
Maybe a round 3 or 4 ability for the Goblin Boss could be that the Boss orders one of its minions to make a suicide attack? I'm just imagining a Goblin screaming "WITNESS ME!" as it grabs a torch and a cask of oil, charging at the party.
It could even be a huge dramatic event a la The Two Towers, Battle of Helm's Deep, movie version!
Makes me think of the diseased orcs that can cause themself to explode.
Hey Matt, just in case you actually read this. I know you like cool funky languages in-game. Back in the old *The Keep on the Borderlands* they include a cool little piece of lore in the form of "yelling 'bree-yark!' is the goblin equivalent of yelling 'Hey Rube!'." @8:30 caused this to come to mind. ;-)
its desvribed in colors as "we surrender"
@@messydeskproductions4159 I think you mean "in rumours" as there is a rumour section early in the module and it does include a rumour that 'bree-yark' is goblin for 'we surrender'.
But that's clearly just Gygax trolling the players, as in the encounters it's revealed that
"If there is a cry of *'BREE-YARK' (similar to 'Hey Rube')*, 2 of the guards will rush to the secret door, toss a sack of 250 gold to the ogre and ask him to help them.
Totally agree with your monster design choices! Thank you for this awesome inspiration! I'm a 4E DM from Germany, and preferring the compact and concise monster/villain stat blocks from 4th edition to the sometimes convoluted mess that can be 5th edition, especially for spellcasting npcs. I've run into the 4E problem of solo monsters not really being able to hold up against a party of 5 slightly more powerful than average pcs for more than three rounds. My first boss monster in my first level adventure was a spectator based on the stat block of the beholder gauth in the monster manual, but it did not last long enough to inflict any meaningful damage to the party due to a freezing spell cast by the wizard slowing him down and reducing him to one action per turn only. I also forgot to make his saving throws, so that's on me. But I am sure that fight would have been more memorable if I had given the spectator more opportunities to act. I'm designing a vengeful ghost / banshee hybrid for my next adventure, and I think this time I am much better prepared. It will have a reaction to phase into the ground or through architecture and go lurking when hit by an effective attack (anything that does full damage despite it being insubstantial), it will have a rechargeable ability to try and possess a pc's body and control it until the pc saves against being possessed, a necrotic standard melee attack and a paralysing shriek that hits every creature inside a near radius, as well as a dazing gaze of horror as a standard short ranged attack. Now I just need to plan 1 villain action per round and make it one ot the ghost's special attacks. It is meant as the only monster in a small mystery adventure, so the pcs (3rd level 4E party of 5 with two healers/leaders, 2 controllers and 1 striker) will be able to go nova on it. I'm not sure yet how many hitpoints are appropriate, but 150 sound about right to me at the moment, given my experience with them fighting bosses. We'll see how it goes.
I love the idea of actions tied to different rounds in combat, it makes for such a compelling fight
I've been having the same problem running "out of the box (book)" monsters: they just don't do anything interesting. So far, all the monsters I've spent time inventing abilities/actions for have been a hit with the group and every time I slack off and just run something as-written, I feel like it's been a mistake. A big regret is a recent encounter with a hydra, which is REALLY cool monster, and I mean how often do players get to fight a hydra? Anyway, I wasn't sure what the players could handle going by the CR of the monster, so I tried to just focus on dmg/ac/hp to determine the difficulty, and it fell flat to the point where I was just calling out rolls for head attacks as quickly as I could to get his turn over asap, but if I had tweaked the actual actions like I had done before and like Matt is suggesting here, the fight would've been what it should have been: memorable and fun. Lesson learned, I just wish I didn't have to waste the Hydra fight to learn it!
Anyway, perfect video. Loved it. Looking forward to Kingdoms and Warfare even more now. Maybe, especially now. I can always use more good ideas and inspiration. Thanks Matt
Nearly two years after this I still refer to this video every now and then, while also suggesting it and all Matt's work to everyone who will listen to me.
Rahadin from Curse of Strahd was one of my favorite villians there to play just because he had multiattack as well as an AOE bonus action attack. He was a boss himself.
What a wonderful surprise and fantastic video! Love reading the script for this ahead of time as well. Keep fighting the good fight!
I was legitimately struggling with this problem for my next session.
Also, possibly the best running the game video EVER
Did anyone else's mind explode at the though of "immune to flanking?" .... just me?
Legendary or Villain actions are absolutely key to make battles feel fun. I really like the Villain Action structure you have here. It helps enormously to have monsters not feel like bullet sponges or just pure damage dealers.
One thing I often do with opportunistic predators (lions, bears, hook horrors, etc.) is make them really mean but have them nope out when they get to about half hit points. That makes them threatening on the initial strike but also gives the PCs incentive to hit hard to drive them back. Other monsters are much more prone to fighting to the death.
I've done a goblin boss who was unthreatening itself but had an action to command other goblins to attack. It also had a reaction to sacrifice one of its goblins to take a PC blow. Eventually the PCs managed to fry most of the goblin allies and at that point the boss was pretty well useless, but they really didn't like him.
I had been doing this exact sort of advice for about a year now, and it not only works and isn’t that difficult to do, but it makes encounters feel waaaay more engaging for the DM. It makes things exciting cause now the monsters are doing things creatively that feel thematic instead of just hitting players till they die. It works, it’s fun, try it!
I feel like the Goblin Boss is Bogan Redcap.
I was feeling kinda insecure about homebrewing a campaign for the first time, but this video reenergized me completely. Keep up the inspiring content!
I freaking LOVE Matt Colville
I did a similar mechanism based on the alien rulers from xcom 2 DLC. Basically they acted after every unique action a character took and It really tested the tactical aspect and shook things up for a change of pace. Im currently implementing It for Pathfinder 2, which i believe it Will work even better with the multiple actions and all.
I used this video for my demon medusa, and it was epic. They absolutely loved it, were challenged, and felt like they had really achieved something.
You're an amazing man.
Must be the hair.
I just used the Action Oriented approach for a custom set of monsters. A most interesting mechanic I came up with was an a mental attack that moved the player's initiative to the bottom of the initiative list. It interrupted the players' plans and forced everyone to scramble suddenly for different options. I found it a great way to challenge players in a new way. With a lower-level party, it offers a great way to attack without bruising delicate hitpoints. Natural 20 on Frustration.
Love the new closing splash screen. Super professional 👌
I ran my first session today. The combat fit this rsndom encounter type pretty well. It had one big monster and two minions (cockatrice and 2 blood hawks at lv 1). The Cockatrice didn't roll above an 8 and never hit once. One of the characters just sat in fog waiting for combat to end (homebrew he has something bad happen on a nat 1 and his backstory had that happen, he hurt his brother, so he ran away)
Looking back, this has been the most valuable D&D video I’ve ever watched.
such good design advice. i recently tacked on "Burrow" to a one-monster encounter and it really brought out the most from my players. the ranger immediately recognized it as a trap, the sorcerer figured the downed npc would make good bait to get the creature to re-emerge, and the paladin took the opportunity to reposition to protect everyone better (even the bait).
it was just the slightest adjustment to the monster, but it created a character-building moment in what was otherwise a pretty straightforward combat encounter. the ranger has a keen sense for danger, the sorcerer will spend other's lives to protect the group, and the paladin will thread that needle between supporting the group's actions and doing the most good.
I MISSED YOU MATT
Then you need to roll higher or improve your Dexterity.
@@DarthTellor super super late but I absolutely love this comment
Used this yesterday, in combination with “monster manual on a business card” for my numbers.
Super quick to throw together, and super memorable fight. Thank you!
"What is this thing?"
A mutant Tyranid Ravener, by the look of it... :P
YES!! I have used this now in 2 different situations -- first a level 1 party against Sephek Kaltro in Rise of the Frostmaiden. Made for an EPIC fight; second for a 9th level party against a frost-giant-drider guardian a snowy mountain pass entrance into the abyss. In both cases the "villain" was a solo monster and having numerous options for "villain actions", bonus actions, and reactions, made everything SO much better without killing the party. The key for me in both cases was adding abilities around things like additional movement for the villain, debuffing the party, reactions that make the villain's flavor/theme come to life. I can't thank you enough, Matt, for sharing this freely. Hands down the single most important change I've ever made in my game and the players seemed so much more engaged during the combat than they have been against "standard" solo monsters.
8:30
Anyone else immediately think "Hey Everybody! GET IN HERE!"?
I used the Ankheg in this video, it went over really well I think.
Had a party of 4 level 2 players, one level 1 player
Had to lower the HP to its normal average, and it only killed one character (although I was pretty brutal, multi attacking her downed body)... poor rogue (it also knocked the level 1 fighter out cold).
The tunnelling and grabbing them freaked them out, especially going after the wizard, and they got some cool loot out of it in the end
Thank you, Mr Colville!
Thank you for this.
I actually just ran a custom insectoid acid flinging monster last night. Though it was based entirely on a random picture I found online. I'm glad I didn't know about the Ankheg or it would have influenced my design a lot more than my own imagination, I'm definitely using this for a bit of improvement though.
I've already been doing some of these things for some encounters in my games the past few months (just ideas that came to me, great minds think alike!). Action economy is SO IMPORTANT when having one monster against a party. This video is super helpful to build off the work I've been doing. Thanks so much for sharing!
That Ankheg is absolutely perfect for my next session. Thanks Matt!
Just have to add on to the pile. For three weeks I have rejiggered several monsters to use during my D&D games. I started with your Ankheg, and added two more of my own. The dynamicism of the encounters is just extraordinary and the players left the table totally blown away by the experience. I am not going back! Kudos!
This was a great video! Im going to try this with some other monsters. Also have you seen Seth Skorkowsky's channel? He's got some great videos about running older modules. Plus he will dress up as a player character that is going along in the adventure, its pretty awesome.
"For Thor!!!!!"
Colville and Skorkowsky are probably my two favorite D&d content creators. Puffin Forest is awesome too.
The Action Building technique is almost exactly how PF 2e handles monster building and encounter building, so great minds think alike.
One of the best -build a monster - advice videos.
This has worked out really well the few times I've tried it so far and is currently the best method I've seen for making boss encounters fun and epic! (I've noticed that whether encounters feel epic or not isn't necessarily correlated to actual difficulty)
The fact that you get a different ability each round means that they will stay fresh, instead of the repetition of just the same few attacks repeated each round until it runs out of HP (a cool reaction when bloodied is fun as well!)
This is EXACTLY what I need for my next session!
I'm a fan of this method as it is quick and easy to get a hang of as well as full scratch made encounters. The more recent one I made was a massive wyvern I built with the party's average to hit, damage, hit points, saving throws, and so on all put together for a boss fight for them to gain a mythic rank through a trial. Lasted six rounds with them flanking, climbing to disable flying, and changing targets as to make it so it didn't stomp the squishy ones.
COLVILLE'S ALIVE
DIVE COMMENTERS DIIIIVE!!!!
I heard that in Brian Blessed's voice
I also got to this action oriented mentality a couple of months ago when trying to run really intricate and dynamic battles and failing. But your version is way easier to understand and implement than mine. Even so, I'm proud to be arriving on the same conclusions as you regarding the mechanics of 5th edition.
The first time I messed around with this design I was helping a friend of mine make a gladiator/berserker sort of warrior, and he was supposed to be a solo boss in his campaign, and I came up with a reaction that involved both mechanics and roleplay, and synthesized it into basically the following: When the warrior got to half his hp, he would throw his helmet to the floor (thus lowering his AC) and shout at his enemies, entering a rage and gaining resistance to non-magical weapon damage. From that point forward, his abilities shifted somewhat, giving that epic "boss phase 2" feeling to the players. I loved both the concept and the practicality, and I've been experimenting with it since...
I didn't find out what happened in the game though, since I only helped build the guy, but after this video I'm itching to try more of this stuff on my table.
I'm adapting your goblin boss to my necromancer summoning hoards of zombies
i think it might just turn out great.
One of my favorite things to do as a GM is to mess with stat blocks and encounter expectations for my party's enemies. This is especially valuable for long time players who are very familiar with typical monsters. It helps to keep them guessing. Everyone knows you use fire on trolls, but slime covered trolls that are resistant to fire damage until the slime burns off surprises them and keeps encounters interesting.
In my previous campaign I was using a lot of these tricks already without thinking of them, so this video was cool to me to help thinking of the idea in a more structured way. Instead of having to invent a new monster or do major changes to existing ones I can use some of these tricks. I'm not sure when I would use it again, but I want to do another pass on the Bonezebo monster I used in my last year's Halloween adventure... Which is just what it sounds like. An animated gazebo in a graveyard made of bones.
I've watched every video in this series. This is my favorite.
So crazy you came out with this video just as I was designing a unique monster. I did a few of the loose concepts you did, but those villain action pacing ideas are making me want to go back over it and improve it.
Theres no 6th edition without this guy. Call him now, wotc
I ran a modified Goblin Boss today. More like the fat goblin king in The hobbit and more magical, carried around by 4 goblins on a throne while more goblins scampered about with spears and scimitars. I knew the party had a few great ranged attackers and could put some hurt on him in the first round so I gave him a crazy AC 20 against ranged attacks so they'd have to close to put him down.
First round the archer rolls a nat 20, the cleric uses guiding bolt and rolls a nat 20 and the monk, with the advantage from guiding bolt....got a nat 20. Lvl 1 party took out a CR 3 monster in 1 round. So....thanks Matt!
My modified purple worm solo monster is ready to go next session!
off topic but if they ever made a legend of Zelda movie Matthew should play the owl
I would actually enjoy hearing the owl talk for so long if that happened
Thank you for what you doing. I'm a new DM playing 5e, and my wife is the PC (new, awesome character). We played a lot of tabletop tactical games in the past. The adventure I have chosen/inventing is working out really well. I like this channel so much because it is giving me many ideas to keep it interesting.
Finally, someone else who uses "immune to flanking", whenever i mention it, people seem to get angry
To me anything with Blind/Tremorsense is immune to flanking. Flanking to me involves not being able to track to people in opposite directions, so it makes sense why someone able to always track movements without sight is fine
@@spencernoble6824 If vision was the main thing for flanking, you could effectively solve it by just turning sideways, that way you would have both sides in sight. In practice it is also a lot about focus, and the ability to pose a threat in several directions at once.
Hey Matt, I just wanted to say thank you for this video, it's given me a whole new perspective on how to tinker with monsters and make them both more compelling and more challenging for a group of higher level players. I've been working in action oriented encounters for a few sessions now and the players seem to love them, I don't think the players know exactly what I'm doing, but they definitely react with a ton of surprise and excitement when a hobgoblin warlord yells at his underlings they don't have permission to die and they get back up for another round of combat after the players knocked them down!
Coming soon to my game, a Yeti that sprays snow into players eyes as a reaction when it gets hit and can call down an avalanche and partially bury characters if it gets really hurt
You have no idea how much I needed this video.
To reinforce the expendability of goblins to their leader (and to make him harder to kill), I like the idea of making the reaction allow him to swap places with an adjacent, allied goblin when attacked, and make that goblin the target of the attack. This allows him to take advantage of the positioning his other abilities grant even more, and allows clever PCs to gain additional, positional advantage of their own.
I'm going to need a t-shirt that reads "Dope Goblin Abilities"
Thank you!